Tweede Kamer

The United States decided to step out of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs responded that he regrets the decision. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called it "unwise", the Telegraaf reports.

Until 2030 the government is pushing 350 million euros into renovating train stations Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid, to make them able to run more trains and therefore transport more passengers, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management said to Dutch parliament, NOS reports.

PVV leader Geert Wilders is allowed to organize a Mohammed-cartoon competition in the Tweede Kamer building. The Dutch coordinator for counter-terrorism and security NCTV sees no safety risks because the exhibition will be held in the PVV chambers, which are highly secured and private, a spokesperson for the NCTV confirmed to RTL Nieuws.

"The NCTV has informed the Tweede Kamer [the lower house of Dutch parliament] that it has no objection to the exhibition from a safety point of view", the spokesperson said.

A legislative proposal by PVV parliamentarians Sietse Fritsma and Machiel de Graaf to send criminal Antilleans back to Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten got no support from other parties in parliament. "This is not possible and we should also not want this", CDA parliamentarian Madeleine van Toorenburg said in a debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, NOS reports.

On Thursday opposition parties in parliament insisted that Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs reverses his decision to postpone the reinforcement of 1,588 homes in the province of Groningen, NU.nl reports.

Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs thinks that gas extraction in Groningen could be reduced to below 12 billion cubic meters by 2020, he wrote in a letter to parliament. Though he added that he can not guarantee this as the effect of a number of planned measures is not yet certain, RTL Nieuws reports.

GroenLinks party chairman Marjolein Meijer and parliamentarian Rik Grashoff resigned with immediate effect on Tuesday after acknowledging that they lied about when they started a secret relationship with one another, ANP reports.

Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs does not rule out that in the future the Netherlands will also hold Ukraine accountable for its role in the MH17 disaster. "There is no concrete legal ground for this, but the cabinet does not rule anything out", he said in a parliamentary debate on the government's decision to hold Russia accountable for its role in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight, NU.nl reports.

A "new, more upscale" Dutch flag was placed in the large parliamentary chamber of the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday, after criticism on the appearance of the temporary flag.

Late last year a temporary flag was placed in the chamber on the initiative of the SGP and PVV. Critics called the flag too small and said that the foot in which the flag stood looked like a piece of cheese, according to ANP.

Dutch people's confidence in each other and in the institutions increased almost across the board last year, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Monday. The Dutch have most confidence in the police with 74.5 percent saying they trust the police, and least in the church with only 31.2 percent.

A majority in the Tweede Kamer wants the government to promise that the Binnenhof in The Hague will be gas-free after the large-scale renovations set to start in 2020. State Secretary Raymond Knops of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations will do his best, but won't make any promises, he said in a parliamentary debate about the Binnenhof renovations on Wednesday, NOS reports.

The Netherlands does not recognize the outcome of the elections held in Venezuela over the weekend, in which leftist president Nicolas Maduro was re-elected. "They were not free and independent elections", Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, RTL Nieuws reports.

The majority of Dutch marines will resign if theirbarracks are moved from Doorn to Vlissingen, the commander of the Marine Corps warned in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Thursday, RTL Nieuws reports.

At this time Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs sees no reason to summon the Israeli ambassador for an explanation about the dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded who fell during demonstrations on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip on Monday, he said to parliament on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.

The people living around six Dutch airports joined forces to fight against what they consider the undesirable growth of aviation in the Netherlands. On Tuesday they established a national residents' council on aviation called LBBL, ANP reports.

The Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC) in Rijswijk used 317 monkeys in its tests last year, compared to 95 in 2016. Last year 137 of these animals died, AD reports.

Ronald Bontrop, BPRC director, told AD that the increase is due the the fact that "a long-term experiment with tuberculosis was completed last year". According to him, the monkeys involved in this experiment have been tested on for some time, but were only included in the count of last year - the year in which the experiment finished.

The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, criticized the Netherlands for still not increasing Defense spending to 2 percent of the gross domestic product. "We expect more. This is about what's fair", he said in a conversation with the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Thursday, NU.nl reports.

The Dutch government wants to protect important companies in the Dutch telecom sector against foreign takeovers. State Secretary Mona Keijzer of Economic Affairs is sending a legislative proposal to the Council of State on Thursday which states that such takeovers first need to be approved by the Ministry, ANP reports.

The Ministry hopes that this bill will prevent companies of "vital importance" easily falling into foreign hands. The bill concerns "providers of telephony, internet or data centers", the Ministry said in a statement, according to the news wire.

A coalition of journalists, lawyers, civil society organizations, and IT- and tech companies is preparing a lawsuit to postpone the implementation of the new law for the Dutch intelligence and security services, NU.nl reports.

State Secretary Menno Snel of Finance will attend the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Armenia next week. This is the first time a member of the Dutch government will be present at the commemoration. From now on a Dutch Minister or State Secretary will attend the commemoration every five years, RTL Nieuws reports.

A majority in the Tweede Kamer is satisfied with the changes the government wants to make to the new law for the intelligence and security services. In addition to coalition parties VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie, opposition parties GroenLinks, PvdA and SGP also agree with the changes, was revealed in a parliamentary debate on the law on Tuesday, NOS reports.

The use of a crown witness holds definite risks for the witness and his or her family, but can also make a "decisive contribution" in the fight against organized crime, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in a parliamentary debate. Grapperhaus called it a "devilish dilemma", RTL Nieuws reports.

Since November there were two cases of the Dutch police removing photos or videos from their social media feeds after complaints about privacy violations, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in response to parliamentary questions on the police's social media policy, NU.nl reports.